Try as Microsoft may, it doesn’t look like VBA is going away
anytime soon! And really, it’s a great
place to start developing macros for SOLIDWORKS. The macros are single-file, self-contained,
and easy to develop. Not to mention that
there are thousands of existing VBA macros out there and lots of sample code online.
The downside? VBA
doesn’t have as many pre-built functions for common file operations available
to C# and VB.net.
In an effort to make your macro development easier, I’ve put
together a handful of common routines and functions you can add to your
SOLIDWORKS VBA macros. If there are
others you’d like to see, let me know!
Batch processing of files is one of those places where you
need to manipulate file information.
Rather than packing all of the processing into one routine, I have broken
it out into common functions so you can save them into a code module to use in
all of your macros.
Macro Code
Start by adding the following procedures and functions to
your VBA macro.
Option
Explicit
Dim swApp
As SldWorks.SldWorks
'batch process using Dir - one
folder level only
Sub
BatchConvert(folderPath As String, _
fileNameFilter As String, _
convertExtension As String, _
Optional
outputFolderPath As String)
Dim file As String
'use Dir function to get all files matching the filter
'in the specific folder
file
= Dir(folderPath & fileNameFilter)
Do While Not file = ""
Dim filePath As String
filePath = folderPath & file
Dim newFilePath As String
newFilePath = ConvertSWFile(filePath,
convertExtension, _
outputFolderPath)
'get the next file
file = Dir
Loop
End Sub
'batch process using
FileSystemObject - all sub folders included
'must add a reference to Microsoft
Scripting Runtime type library
Sub
BatchConvert2(folderPath As String, _
fileNameFilter As String, _
convertExtension As String, _
Optional doSubFolders As Boolean = False, _
Optional outputFolderPath As String)
Dim file As String
Dim fso As New FileSystemObject
Dim fld As Scripting.Folder
Set fld = fso.GetFolder(folderPath)
Dim f As Scripting.file
For Each f In fld.files()
'wildcards not allowed in
fileNameFilter when using
'FileSystemObject methods
If InStr(1, f.Name, fileNameFilter, _
vbTextCompare) <> 0 Then
Dim newFilePath As String
newFilePath = ConvertSWFile(f.Path, _
convertExtension,
outputFolderPath)
End If
Next
'recursive routine if doSubFolders is True
If doSubFolders Then
Dim subFolder As Scripting.Folder
For Each subFolder In fld.subFolders
Call BatchConvert2(subFolder.Path,
fileNameFilter, _
convertExtension, doSubFolders,
outputFolderPath)
Next
End If
End Sub
'open the file in SOLIDWORKS and
convert by changing
'the file extension. new file will be created in the
'same folder as the parent file
'or, pass an outputFolderPath
string to send files to
'a specific folder
Function
ConvertSWFile(filePath As String, _
convertExtension As String, _
Optional outputFolderPath As String) As
String
Dim model As ModelDoc2
Dim fileType As Long
fileType = GetSWFileType(filePath)
Dim errors As Long, warnings As Long
Set model = swApp.OpenDoc6(filePath, _
fileType, swOpenDocOptions_Silent, _
"", errors, warnings)
If model Is Nothing Then
ConvertSWFile = ""
Exit Function
End If
Dim newFilePath As String
newFilePath = ChangeExtension(filePath,
convertExtension)
If outputFolderPath <> ""
Then
newFilePath =
ChangeFolderPath(newFilePath, _
outputFolderPath)
End If
Call model.Extension.SaveAs(newFilePath, _
swSaveAsCurrentVersion, swSaveAsOptions_Silent, _
Nothing,
errors, warnings)
Call swApp.CloseDoc(filePath)
ConvertSWFile = newFilePath
End
Function
'return the file type from a full
file path
'helpful for opening various
SOLIDWORKS files
Function
GetSWFileType(filePath As String) As Long
Dim ext As String
Dim fileType As Long
ext = Right(filePath, Len(filePath) -
InStrRev(filePath, _
".") + 1)
Select Case UCase(ext)
Case ".SLDPRT"
fileType = swDocPART
Case ".SLDASM"
fileType = swDocASSEMBLY
Case ".SLDDRW"
fileType = swDocDRAWING
Case Else
fileType = swDocNONE
End Select
GetSWFileType = fileType
End
Function
'============ File path
manipulation ==================
'change the extension of a file
from a given file path
Function
ChangeExtension(filePath As String, _
newExtension
As String) As String
Dim filePathNoExt As String
filePathNoExt = Left(filePath,
InStrRev(filePath, ".") - 1)
ChangeExtension = filePathNoExt &
newExtension
End
Function
'change the folder path of the file
Function
ChangeFolderPath(filePath As String, _
newFolderPath As String) As String
Dim fileName As String
fileName = Right(filePath, _
Len(filePath) -
InStrRev(filePath, "\"))
ChangeFolderPath = newFolderPath &
fileName
End Function
'verify the path ends with \
Function
VerifyFolderPath(folderPath As String) As String
If InStrRev(folderPath, "\")
<> Len(folderPath) Then
VerifyFolderPath = folderPath &
"\"
Else
VerifyFolderPath = folderPath
End If
End Function
'verify folder exists
Function
VerifyFileFolderExists(fullPath As String) As Boolean
Dim res As String
res = Dir(fullPath, vbDirectory)
'result will be some value if the folder exists
If res = vbNullString Or fullPath =
"" Then
VerifyFileFolderExists = False
Else
VerifyFileFolderExists = True
End If
End
Function
'============ Other utilities
===================
'open any file in its associated
application
Sub
OpenFile(ByVal filePath As String)
Dim WshShell As Object
Set WshShell =
CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
'append quotes in case of spaces in file
path
WshShell.Run Chr(34) & filePath &
Chr(34)
End Sub
'show a folder browser dialog and
return the selected folder path
'or empty string if cancelled
Function
BrowseFolder(message As String) As String
Dim folderBrowser As Object
Dim options As Integer
options = 40 'UI with New Folder button and right-click menus
'options = 0 'UI without New Folder button
'and no right-click menus
Set folderBrowser =
CreateObject("Shell.Application"). _
BrowseForFolder(0, message, options)
On Error Resume Next
BrowseFolder = folderBrowser.Self.Path
On Error GoTo 0
End
Function
Usage
The following main procedure makes use of most of these
procedures and functions to publish SOLIDWORKS files to PDF in a selected
directory.
Sub main()
Set swApp = Application.SldWorks
Dim folderPath As String
'browse for folder
folderPath = BrowseFolder("Select
folder to process...")
folderPath = VerifyFolderPath(folderPath)
If Not VerifyFileFolderExists(folderPath)
Then Exit Sub
Dim convertExtension As String
convertExtension = ".PDF"
'if using Dir function to get files using wildcards
Dim fileNameFilter As String
fileNameFilter = _
InputBox("Enter the file name
filter (*.sldprt, *.sld*):")
Dim outputFolderPath As String
''optionally, set an output folder path
'outputFolderPath = _
'BrowseFolder("Select destination
folder...")
'outputFolderPath = VerifyFolderPath(outputFolderPath)
Call BatchConvert(folderPath,
fileNameFilter, _
convertExtension, outputFolderPath)
''or if using FileSystemObject to process all sub folders...
'fileNameFilter = _
'InputBox("Enter the file name filter " _
'& "(sldprt or 1234.slddrw):")
'Call BatchConvert2(folderPath, fileNameFilter, _
' convertExtension, True)
MsgBox "Finished!"
End Sub
Descriptions
BatchConvert uses
the Dir function to get all files in a given folder and allows wildcards in the
file name filter. This method doesn’t
support processing of sub-folders.
BatchConvert2 allows processing of
sub-folders, but doesn’t allow wildcards because of its use of the
FileSystemObject. Either routine must be
passed the desired conversion extension, including the period (.PDF in this
example). Optionally, you can pass an
output folder path as a final argument.
If an output folder is specified, all published files go to that
folder. If no output folder path is
passed, the files are created in the same location as their source files.
ConvertSWFile is
called for each file path. This does all
the heavy lifting of opening the file in SOLIDWORKS, changing the file extension
and optional output folder path, saving the new output file and closing the
source file. It returns the newly
created file name if you need to log the results.
File Path Manipulation
There are a few functions to help with common operations
like changing file extensions, changing folder paths as well as verifying a
folder path string is complete and verifying if a file or folder exists.
Other Utilities
The last section includes OpenFile, a routine to open any file in its associated application. This is triggering the Windows shell, so it
is just like double-clicking on a file in Windows Explorer. It does not return an interface to the opened
file and does not wait until the operation is complete.
BrowseFolder is a
function that launches a folder browser and returns the user-selected folder
path or an empty string if cancelled.
I hope you find these helpful in your next macro
project! Let me know if there are others
you’d like to see or share.
